Olympic Glory and Shattered Dreams

After the extravaganza of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the adoration of our contestants has already risen to fever pitch as media coverage floods our living rooms on a daily basis. Other nations too will pour out fresh adulation upon their heroes. Careers will be made or lost, and lives changed forever, determined by the success, or otherwise, of the many ‘performers.’

The dreams of athletes are built on the expectation of an adrenaline rush that will come from their participation alongside other outstanding competitors, and the quest for the victorious gold. Their performances set new benchmarks for others to emulate or applaud. They become role models to countless thousands of adoring fans. On a smaller scale, though no less significant, football sports in Australia are played before crowds of many tens of thousands of spectators, cheering their heroes toward victory.

Like it or not our sporting heroes are role models for millions of young Australians. They are recognised in the street, their autographs are sought and their posters adorn the wall of thousands of kids' bedrooms. Remember, these sporting heroes have chosen their careers. They are not drafted against their will to play football, race motor cars or swim for gold medals. But it is not only fame, money and adoration that come with sporting success. With it also comes personal responsibility.1

Behind the spectacular public achievements, lurks an insidious attitude that could potentially destroy reputations - the tendency to cheat. Athletes know full well the behavioural expectations of the various sporting bodies that govern their events, and their personal responsibility to maintain them. Yet the media abounds with examples of those foolish enough to ignore set boundaries - drunken brawls, drug taking and cheating in various forms have all been prevalent in recent times. Reputations have been destroyed and the ability or opportunity to compete is often forfeited as a consequence of this anti-social behaviour.

Examples include international athletes such as champion Olympic sprinters Ben Johnson, Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin, who all failed drug tests. China has already disqualified its top champion backstroke swimmer, Ouyang Kunpeng, from the 2008 games on account of a positive drug test, and subsequently US swimmer Jessica Hardy tested positive for a banned substance. Australian swimmer Nick Darcy was disqualified from the team due to unacceptable drunken behaviour, and the list goes on.

Perhaps as a result of expectations and pressure to perform, character weaknesses are revealed, and problems with drug use surface. Close to home, the addictions of AFL players Wayne Carey & Ben Cousins, NRL's Andrew Johns and Rugby Union's Wendell Sailor have all been exposed. With substantial remuneration and crowd adoration as their constant companion, why do athletes even enter a zone that can only spiral out of control? Perhaps the reason could best be summed up by fallen AFL ‘star’ Gary Ablett, who described the pressure to perform and the fact that his sense of self-worth and security were based on the pursuit of sporting success. The writer of the same article described Wayne Carey as

… the underbelly of a celebrity-obsessed culture that thrusts barely socialised young men into a world where they're pumped up to ridiculous heights and put under intense pressure to perform,2

It seems appropriate to question how this behaviour impacts the community at large, given how it leads to media sensations that are channelled into every household. How does personal responsibility relate to social responsibility, that is, not just to sponsors or professional agencies, but to fellow competitors, immediate families and adoring fans? What damage does this self-centred anti-social behaviour have on the sports fans, young and old alike, who look to emulate their heroes as role models? How does this affect the lives of young fans, who in later years attempt to ‘swim’ through the struggles of life? In a recent article on the extent of cheating in sport, it was reported that

Cheating in sports has been so prevalent for so long that even complaining about it now seems passe. We've lost the energy for outrage. Instead, we simply face a choice: Do we watch, or do we turn away?3

Have we become indifferent, and if so, why? How could we become desensitised to the incessant beat of dishonesty and drug dependency in the sporting arena? Have our values changed so much that we now tolerate these aberrations of societal norms, or have the norms themselves evolved?

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